


The Doomed City

by ScootAlors



Series: Avengers Forever [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cameos by most everyone else, Doom POV, Doom centric, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27890179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScootAlors/pseuds/ScootAlors
Summary: When the city of Asgard appears in the Midgardian sky, on course to crash into the Latverian capital, Doctor Doom must do everything he can to protect his people. Will it be enough?
Relationships: Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Series: Avengers Forever [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042224
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	The Doomed City

**Author's Note:**

> This story in meant to be the very beginning of a much longer project that I've had in my head for years. I intend to continue working on writing it out and sharing it with you all. Basically, the only thing to know at the start is that it has many of the same beats as 616 Marvel but 1) trimmed down to fit in a 15-20 year timeline for most of the heroes and 2) I follow the 'pick and choose your own canon' type of mindset when it comes to reading comics, so this universe reflects that mindset.
> 
> This story can be read as a standalone. Further installments in the project will follow the continuity that starts here.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the first installment of the cheesily titled "Avengers Forever"!

It was never his fault.

It was always something else that vexed Victor Von Doom, some other party of supposed “heroes” that prevented him from reaching his goals. It wasn’t because he was incompetent, or incapable. He was fit to rule this poor, depraved world, to turn it into something worth living in. He was sure of it. It wasn’t his fault he had failed- no, he hadn’t failed. He simply hadn’t yet been successful. It was a difference in terminology, in semantics, but an important one.

These were the thoughts of one Doctor Doom as he ascended the staircase of his castle on the morning of August 27th, 2014. He was heading towards the central computer room, to check the monitors set up around his city of Doomstadt. It was routine, it was normal, and with luck no foolish pedestrian would be thinking of vandalizing a screen today, risking their life with Doom’s law.

On the inside of his metal mask, a small holographic dot of light appeared to Doom, indicating something important. He willed an elaboration from his server, not needing to move or speak in order to access his advanced technology. A small text box appeared to him from the hologram light, saying simply: _Presence in section 240 requested immediately._

Section 240 was the computer room that he was already headed to. Was one of his Doombots glitched again? He needn’t be instructed to do this. Whatever part of the system was responsible for this would need to be fixed; Doom was not to be rushed.

He ascended the last stair and had barely taken a step into the room when he stopped. Every screen showed a variation of the same image: the underside of a mountain, seemingly suspended in midair. On some screens, Latverian buildings were visible in the foreground, and on any screen where the mountain didn’t completely fill the backdrop, the morning sky was visible behind rocky earth.

Doom was baffled. He mentally searched for any kind of disruption of the system, anything that would indicate a cyber attack or electronic interference. It all came up negative. Whatever he was seeing was real.

He approached the console and began typing, inputting questions and commands to his system. Very quickly, a response appeared within his mask, in the text box:

_Landmass identified as Asgard. Immediate defensive action is required._

His metal incased fingers hovered over the keyboard. Asgard? The mythical city of supposed gods, belonging to an entirely different plane of existence, hovering precariously above Doom’s city? How on earth could it possibly be… on earth? Why? For what purpose?

Immediate defensive action is required.

Instantly, he cast a teleportation spell to take himself outside the castle. He saw the bottom of the city of Asgard, blocking out the sun entirely, its shadow encompassing the whole of Doomstadt and beyond. Doom squinted, looking carefully at the landmass. It did, in fact, appear to be descending at a very slow pace.

The sound of many distant screams reached his ears. He looked back to his city, beyond Castle Doom, where hundreds of buildings housed his people. He looked back to Asgard, and saw, several miles away, an immense chunk of rock peel away from the underside of the mountain and come hurtling down to Earth.

He willed the missile defenses to come online at once. An energy field activated where the rock was falling to, and it slammed into the glowing green wall of light and promptly disintegrated. Doombots began flying out of the castle, preparing a wall of anti-gravity shields against the falling Asgard. Doom himself teleported to the roof of his castle, suspended in the air by the jets of his armor, and channeled the most powerful repulsion spell he knew directly upwards.

It wouldn’t be enough. Asgard had ancient, powerful magics surrounding it, keeping it aloft, keeping it intact, keeping it safe for millennia. An earthen city could be blasted apart, totally destroyed while Latveria remained safe. But Asgard was different, and would not bow to either Doom’s technology or magic. All he had would not be enough to stop Asgard from descending and crushing his city, his country. Levitation, disruption, repulsion, teleportation, anti-gravity, shielding, it would not be enough. Asgard was too immense, too powerful,

It would not be enough.

Swooping down from the city itself, which could not be seen from below, came a familiar figure. Propelled by the weight of his magical hammer, the so-called ‘God of Thunder’, Thor, had emerged and was rushing towards Doctor Doom. The Lord of Latveria didn’t waver, continuing to channel his spell.

Thor slowed and stopped when he neared Doom. Landing beside him on the roof, Thor shouted over the buzzing noise of the spell, and the hum of the Doombots’ shields.

“You have not caused this?!”

“What reason have I to endanger my own country, you oafish barbarian?!” Doom shouted back. “Make yourself useful and put your city back where it belongs!”

“I cannot discern the reason why this has happened! There is no portal, no trace of disruption magic! Your technology did not do this?!”

“NO, you fool! Can’t you see I’m trying to repel it?!”

Thor paused for the slightest moment, before swinging his hammer and launching upward. He was gone as quickly as he had come. Doom, in his desperation, found himself hoping Thor had believed him. Perhaps then the Thunderer would spend less time fruitlessly trying to discern the cause and more time trying to stop the city from falling.

Minutes passed. Asgard slowly descended. Doom strained to maintain the spell, believing it had to have some effect of the speed of the city’s descent. From his vantage point, he could see a distant figure approaching quickly. It was humanoid, but airborne; his scanning system quickly told him it was Iron Man. Doom opened up a communication channel to Stark, but the latter spoke first.

“Doom, Scarlet Witch is bringing more, we’ve got this! Keep doing whatever you’re doing!”

“Thor told you, I assume?”

“’Course he did! You think we’re gonna sleep on this? It’ll just take a little elbow grease and we’ll have Asgard right back home, good as new.”

Doom highly doubted that. It’s not that the Avengers were incompetent, it was that there was no conceivable way of returning Asgard to its realm without an enormous portal. None of them had the power to summon one. The best they could do was hold the city in the sky.

Thor, dumb as he may be, had a point. The cause of this catastrophe might lead them to a solution. If Doom knew what had happened, he might be able to replicate the original instance, perhaps in reverse, and return Asgard with minimal casualties to its populace. He had many ideas for what could have happened, but nothing conclusive, as he was currently busy trying to maintain his defenses.

He saw tiny humanoid specks in the distance. A speck of green against the layer of rock indicated the Hulk trying to push the Asgard back into the sky. Doom willed one of his bots to approach the Hulk and give him a platform of energy to stand on, lest the gamma-powered behemoth dangle there uselessly. It was the least Doom could do.

Minutes passed once more, and though the descent was slow, it was inevitable. Doom did not know fear, but he knew caution and apprehension. He knew worry. And his worry was only growing as the seconds passed, and Asgard approached…

Mystical red energy began to swirl up from somewhere below, encompassing the landmass with alarming speed. A blinding flash of red light filled the air, and Doom shut his eyes, cursing whichever foolhardy Avenger sought to attack him now. The light faded after a moment, and Doom opened his eyes-

Asgard was gone.

The Latverian sky was clear, with Doombots dotting the skyline with shields and anti-gravity fields still raised. Doom breathed heavily, his confusion growing. How? How had the crisis been averted so quickly, so flawlessly, so effortlessly? What was responsible?

Finally stopping the repulsion spell, Doom flew down to the ground in front of his castle, where several Avengers stood waiting. Among them stood the Scarlet Witch, looking shaken and flabbergasted. Her husband, Vision, stood by her, hands on her shoulders, comforting her.

“It’s alright. You did what you wanted to do. You saved many innocent lives today, Wanda.” Vision said calmly, gently.

“I… didn’t know… I’m not supposed to…” Scarlet Witch stammered. “I just…I tried, and it happened. I just wanted it to happen. I…!”

She looked up from Vision to see Victor Von Doom standing only a few feet away. Any expression he had was obscured by his mask, and his eyes betrayed no emotion. From above, Iron Man descended and landed between the Avengers and Doom.

“How?” Doom demanded of the crowd. He tried to keep his voice steady, but was finding it difficult. It sounded more accusatory.

“Wanda successfully cast a teleport spell,” said Vision curtly. “It was of much greater magnitude than she was expecting.”

The magical energy readings Doom had seen definitely confirmed the power of the event. However, Scarlet Witch had no known record of having such power, neither did any magic user on Earth or otherwise. How could she not have known? Had she simply never tried magic on such a scale before?

Of course not. She hadn’t the ambition of Doom, to test out the extent of her power, to see what she was truly capable of. Only when prompted by a disaster, and pushed back into a corner would she discover her own might. Now she would have a much different perception of herself, of what she could accomplish.

Doom contemplated the result of today’s victory. He could not claim it was his own. He had struggled fruitlessly until one person had effortlessly solved the problem without him. Yet how could he be embarrassed, or angry, or ashamed, when none of his people had been hurt, when no damage had been done to his cause? A woman he barely knew had not raised a hand against him, and only offered her support. All the Avengers had. After all they had done against him, now they intended to stand by his side?

Unless it was some sort of apology, or a cover up for some terrible mistake.

“The cause,” said Doom. “What. Did this.”

An uncomfortable silence followed.

“You know. Tell me what happened,” he demanded. Doom’s voice was dripping with venom.

Iron Man spoke slowly, carefully. “As soon as Thor told us what happened, Vision scanned for anything unusual that might give us a lead. We found a signal in New York... where they were working. They had created a portal connected specifically to Asgard, and placed it right over your city.” He paused, seemingly struggling to speak with his usual confidence. “We followed the signal and… Namor and Black Bolt had already fled.”

Doom froze, his eyes wide. The last time he had heard those names, it was because they had been working with-

“Reed Richards has been brought into custody.” Iron Man finished.

Richards. Doctor Doom’s most hated enemy. His nemesis. Rage flared up in Doom’s heart, bubbling deep from within his soul. He hadn’t dealt with Richards in months. He had believed himself above Richards, he had put those thoughts of revenge behind him, to focus on the greater good of the world.

Of course, thought Doom, in his fury. Richards was not capable of doing this, of trying to kill his people over nothing, but he WAS capable of performing an extreme experiment, all for the cause of science. All at the expense of the people he claimed to protect.

“I will kill him.” Doom proclaimed. His voice was low, quiet, seething.

“He’s in custody, Doom,” said Iron Man quickly. “He’s our responsibility, not yours. I know- I KNOW how much you hate him-“

“You can’t possibly imagine.”

Doom glared at Iron Man. The other Avengers looked on with worry, waiting for a possible attack. Iron Man tried again, speaking calmly.

“If he escapes, Doom, he’s all yours. But while he’s locked up in our country, he’s our problem to deal with. Alright?”

It was not alright. Richards would not be compliant. He would break out, but only when the time was right. Doom would have to keep an eye on his cell, to monitor his every move, and catch Mr. Fantastic the moment he escaped. If the Americans would not bring Richards to justice, Doom would instead… for Richards deserved death, and only by Doom’s hand.

“Doom will hold you to your word,” Doom said firmly.

The Avengers only delayed the inevitable. Infuriatingly, ironically so, after what had almost befallen Latveria and Asgard. Still, underneath Doom’s rage, his hatred, there was a spark of something different, towards the woman who had saved his country.

Doctor Doom turned away, with a dramatic whirl of his cape, and began marching back towards his castle. Without turning around, he called back, “You have my gratitude, Wanda.”


End file.
